THE OSPREY. 



89 



LONG-BILLED MARSH WKENS. 

 From Painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. 



of the habits of our native birdvS that have 

 appeared since their time. It is much 

 to be reg-retted that he was not permitted 

 to finish the work so well beg-un. The 

 material for the succeeding- volumes was 

 accumulating-, but little or nothing- had 

 been done toward the actual writing-. 



Major Bendire's personal appearance is 

 probabl}' well known to a majority of 

 American ornitholog-ists. He was strik- 

 ing-ly a soldier, and his fine ph3'sique and 

 erect bearings will be well remembered. 

 He was not, however, a man who made 

 friends easily. He had a reserve manner 

 which amounted at timesal most to brusque- 

 ness, yet beneath the rough exterior was 

 a warm and sympathetic heart. To 



those who where so fortunate as to know 

 him intimately, he was a g-enial compan- 

 ion, full of reminiscences and anecdotes 

 of his long- life on the frontier, of its 

 hardships and dangers, and its scientific 

 successes. But on the approach of a 

 strang-er he became silent. 



Above all things Bendire was a lover 

 of truth. He had no patience with an}-- 

 thing- that had not the stamp of unques- 

 tioned veracity upon it. In his work he 

 never made a statement that had not been 

 verified, so far as within his power, to 

 the minutest particular. Truthfulness 

 was so much a part of his nature that the 

 shadow of its absence in another, received 

 but scant courtesy at his hands. 



His sense of duty was so great that he 

 let nothing- overshadow it. When en- 

 g-ag-ed on military duty every moment of 

 time was g-iven up to it, to the complete 

 exclusion of scientific or other interests. 

 It is said, for example, that when on a 

 scouting- expedition he g-ave not the 

 slig-htest attention to ornitholog-y. The 

 eg-g-s of birds new to him, or perhaps 

 new to science, were passed by without 

 heed. He was a soldier then, not an 

 oolog-ist. 



To those whom he thought deserving- 

 he was ever ready with assistance. His 

 familiarity with almost every foot of the 

 Western territory made his knowledg-e of 

 the greatest value, and it was freely 

 g-iven. While of course his chief inter- 

 est was the birds, their egg-s and habits, 

 he obtained material in many branches — 

 mammalogy, paleontology, ethnolog-y — 

 and it was freely placed at the disposal 

 of science. There were no restrictions so 

 long- as it advanced science. 



It is the custom of the ofticers and sci- 

 entific staff of the United States National 

 Museutn, on the death of an associate, to 

 hold a brief memorial meeting-. The 

 meeting in honor of Major Bendire was 

 called in the room so long presided oyer 

 by Dr. (i. Brown (Toode, and into which 

 we were so recently called to mourn his 

 loss. Many feeling tributes were paid to 

 the memory of Bendire — to his hig-h char- 

 acter, his love of truth and his devotion 

 to science. At the close of the meeting- 

 the following- resolutions were adopted: 



Whkkeas, Major Charles E. Bendire, of the 

 United States Army, Honorary Curator of the 

 Department of Oology in the United States 



